CATALOG OF LIVING WHALES 121 



mitted by Mr. Gerrard Krefft of the Australian Museum]; 1871, 

 Suppl. Cat. seals and whales Brit. Mus., p. 59 [atlas 13 inches wide]. 

 [Physeter] Krefftii, Boschma, 1938, Temminckia, 3: 166 (in text) [regarded 



as a synonym of Kogia breviceps}. 

 Physeter australis asiaticus Gray, 1866, Cat. seals and whales Brit. Mus., 



p. 210 [lapsus for Physeter australasianus Desmoulins, 1822]. 

 [Physeter] pterodon, Trouessart, 1898, Cat. Mamm., p. 1056 [listed in 

 synonymy of ?macrocephaius, attributed to "Lesson, Descr. Mamm., 

 p. 167"]. 

 Sperm whale, Ohsumi, 1965, Sci. Rep. Whales Res. Inst., 19: 1 [N. 

 Pacific: Japan; reproduction (mating, sex ratios, ovulation, develop- 

 ment, genitalia, parturition, lactation, periodicity)]. 

 Type : None in existence ; the catodon of Linnaeus as defined in the original 

 description (1758, Syst. Nat., 10: 76). Whales of Sibbald, Ray, and Artedi 

 cited by Linnaeus and authors may or may not (and need not) conform to 

 the Linnaean concept of catodon. 



Type locality: "Oceano septentrionali," restricted to Kairston, 

 Orkney Islands, Scotland, by Thomas (1911, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 

 1911: 157). 

 Distribution : Polar, temperate, and tropical seas. 



Remarks: Boschma (1938, Temminckia, 3: 161 ff.) argues that Physeter 

 catodon Linnaeus, 1758, is unidentifiable and should be replaced by P. 

 macrocephalus Linnaeus, 1758. The latter, he affirms, had already been 

 "chosen as the valid name of the sperm whale" in 1866 by Murray (The 

 geographical distribution of mammals, London, p. 340); therefore, ac- 

 cording to Boschma, designation of catodon as the prior name for the type 

 species of Physeter by Thomas, in 1911 (Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1911(2): 

 157) is not valid. Boschma's rejection of P. catodon as a sperm whale, 

 though he recognizes it as a synonym of macrocephalus (1938, op. cit., p. 

 168), derives from descriptions by authors cited by Linnaeus. The Lin- 

 naean Physeter catodon, however, is not based on pre-1758 accounts of other 

 authors. Linnaeus himself characterizes the genus Physeter as "Dentes in 

 maxilla inferiore. Fistula in capite s. fronte." The four species included 

 in Physeter are catodon ("dorso impenni, fistula in rostro"), macrocephalus 

 ("dorso impenni, fistula in cervice"), microps, and tursio. The generic and 

 specific diagnoses of P. catodon as well as the etymology of its name (Greek 

 for teeth in lower jaw only) are certainly those of the sperm whale. Use 

 by Linnaeus of bibliographic references to prior and equivocal descriptions 

 of supposed sperm whales does not effect one tittle of the zoological status 

 of his own P. catodon and the validity and availability of its scientific name. 

 As for the remaining species of Physeter, the cervical position of the blow- 

 hole in macrocephalus and the high dorsal fin attributed to microps and tursio 

 are characters that would exclude them from the genus as understood 

 today; nevertheless, authors have generally regarded these forms as inaccu- 



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